The Compliance Conundrum

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You’ve all experienced coming in for an appointment and having to sign a ream of papers. Or, one of us contacting you because we need you to sign this or that. Try not to get frustrated with the process. We ourselves work at not getting frustrated with it daily. There is a reason for all the paper and it is a good one.

Our mutual fund dealer FundEX Investments Inc. oversees all of our investment transactions and ensures that we are operating in line with provincial securities commissions and the MFDA (Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada). The purpose of all the regulation in the industry is to keep you safe from investment schemes and unscrupulous sorts. Although a few bad apples in the industry have resulted in stricter regulations (and in some cases, excessive) for all advisory firms, processes and procedures are necessary to ensure you are staying informed about your advisory services and investment transactions.

FundEX Compliance Related Documents

KYC (Know Your Client) Forms. The KYC is a document related to suitability. It gives us a framework within which to establish an investment profile. It must be renewed at least every 3 years and when a “material”/significant change has occurred. This keeps us informed of any changes that may need to be made to your investment portfolio. If your KYC is out of date we are not able to perform a trade on your behalf.

Address Change Form. Please contact us when you decide to move or change any of your contact information. We can update our database with your new information and then generate an address change form that must be signed and submitted to FundEX to update your investment account. Your investment account will not be updated without the form.

Client Copies. We are required to send you copies of the paperwork generated from completing an investment trade or any other transaction for you. At times, this can mean a lot of paper and may even seem daunting, but it is important that you review the paper and call us with any questions before filing it in your cabinet or recycling bin.

FundEX Investment Transactions

Fund Facts. We are required to send you these regulatory documents before you decide on making an investment in a specific holding that you do not currently have in your portfolio. Fund Facts are the industry’s way of communicating key information about mutual funds to investors in easy to understand language. You may receive Fund Facts as an attachment in an email, as an email notification to check your WealthView account or in person.

Investment Instructions. In many cases our clients have given us Limited Authorization to sign investment instructions on their behalf. You control the decisions that are made and we can act only on your instructions. When meeting to discuss your investment strategy, sometimes the specific transactions are not finalized during the meeting. Further research may be required before the specific transactions can be determined. When this happens, your advisor will either send you an email to confirm your authorization or contact you by telephone. If instructions apply to both you and your spouse, it is required that we obtain confirmation from each of you before we can place your trades.

Fraser & Partners Letter of Engagement (LOE)

Signing an LOE with Fraser & Partners means we’ve had a candid discussion and agreed to the following:

The services we are providing for you.

Expectations for both parties to ensure a successful life planning engagement.

Fees and a compensation model that works for you.

The best way to communicate.

Opt in or out of our digital communications.

There are many aspects and many layers in the operation of a compliant advisory firm. In the above comments we are primarily referring to investment-related matters, but there are also strict regulations in place for insurance and income tax services, not to mention the professional requirements and practice standards applied to Certified Financial Planners.

When you hear from us that we need to update your account information, please don’t shoot the messenger! Having the details in order frees us up to focus on planning and implementation of your financial life plan.